BERLIN – While it's true that Western-style porn was prohibited under communism, the military personnel in the former East Germany made their own brand of sex movies that featured bare-breasted female soldiers. The movies were enjoyed by senior officers and East German politicians.
Evidence of the practice surfaced recently in a documentary made by eastern Germany's MDR television channel. The documentary included original film clips that showed nude subalterns kissing and helmeted female army privates posing semi-naked on parade.
The documentary, which featured the snappy title "Pornography Made in the German Democratic Republic," revealed that the East German army ran a 160-man film unit that had a secret amateur circle of 12 porn enthusiasts.
According to Dietmar Schürtz, 57, a former sound technician and actor in the porn film circle, the unit was formed in 1982 and made 12 sex films before the collapse of communism in 1989. Schürtz currently works in the reunited German army's media department.
Schürtz said in the documentary, "All of the films were made in secret but partly with the permission of senior officers." When a movie premiered, Schürtz noted, "All the bosses came to these showings – either because they were just inquisitive or simply out of pure lust."
According to Schürtz, all the movies were shot on 16mm film cameras and that a military hospital functioned as a studio. Most of the women, said Schürtz, were civilian employees of the army. "We asked them whether they wanted a role and nearly all of them said yes immediately," he said.
Which just goes to show you that, despite political leanings, people everywhere enjoy sex.
